


The Melancholy of Dave Strider

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 22:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dave's sunglasses break</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Melancholy of Dave Strider

i.

A loud snap wakes you at the asscrack of dawn. You sit up, frantically looking around, trying to shake the sleepy haze out of your head and figure out what that sound was.

You see the sleeping figures of John and Rose in the floor and you remember the sleepover. In another second you spot Jade standing next to you, one foot raised awkwardly in the air, a hand covering her mouth. Her eyes flick toward you, then back to the floor.

You follow her gaze and find out what that sound was.

 

ii.

There’s no way to fix them unless tape counts, which it doesn’t. You hold the pieces in your hands, frowning at the separate lenses. The sunlight streaming in looks too bright. You have to squint whenever you look at Rose.

Jade looks so guilty. You wish she wouldn’t. You keep telling her that it’s fine, it was an accident. You’re not mad at her.

You’re not. You don’t have the energy to be, and you don’t know if you would even if she had done it on purpose. You keep looking at the fragments of your old glasses. It feels like a broken part of you.

 

iii.

Bro notices you’re not wearing them when you come home. He doesn’t ask, but you think he knows.

That night you get out your old shades, the ones you wore before you turned thirteen. You try them on again for the first time in years. They feel so wrong.

 

iv.

You start shopping online for aviators. You discover they don’t make the exact kind you had anymore. The others you find are too large, or not large enough, or they have strangely colored lenses, or they have brightly colored frames.

You decide it hurts too much.

 

v.

John sends you a text. You realize you haven’t been on pesterchum since you last saw him.

You respond twice, and then ignore him.

 

vi.

Maybe it’s time for a new style anyway, you think. Maybe you could update your style every year. That’s what the rest of society does, isn’t it? What’s perceived as cool and not cool and sort of ironically cool changes each year.

In their eyes.

 

vii.

You find a brand of sunglasses with electric glowing rims. They’re meant for raves, but you think it could be great to wear them in the day.

You don’t know if the effect would be the same in sunlight though.

 

viii.

You skip school for a day. You don’t want to be seen without your trademark.

 

ix.

You can’t bring yourself to shop today. You can’t bring yourself to do much of anything today. You don’t even want to strife with Bro. He doesn’t pester you about it.

 

x.

As soon as you log in, Jade and John and Rose all message you at once. You apologize for worrying them, but you immediately regret getting online.

Jade continues to apologize profusely. John makes fun of you, like he’s not even aware of how bad your situation is. Rose is sympathetic, but you don’t think she gets it.

You don’t know if any of them really get it.

 

xi.

You wake up late for school again. Bro doesn’t say anything again, but you can tell he doesn’t approve.

Not even your Bro gets it, and that stings.

 

xii.

You start looking at designer brands before you remember that designer isn’t ironic.

 

xiii.

Jade offers her help. She sends some links and pictures. They’re good, but somehow not right. You thank her anyway.

She doesn’t seem offended that you don’t like her choices. She just seems kind of worried. You start to feel bad for causing that.

 

xiv.

You realize that up until now, your search has mainly been unisex shades. The men’s shades all look like the unisex shades to you, so you start looking at the women’s.

You get really optimistic about this idea. It’s a real statement, wearing something a man would find laughable. You start kicking yourself for not thinking about it before. You wonder if that’s the whole internalized misogyny thing you’ve heard Rose talking about.

But you don’t find anything good enough. You could rock them all right, but none of them have the same ironic flair as your old shades.

 

xv.

Rose sends you a picture of herself throwing a peace sign and wearing a pair of those shutter glasses. The tag is still hanging from them. You didn’t know those were still being sold.

It takes you a moment to notice the caption: “Missing you.”

You kind of want to cry.

 

xvi.

You’re out of ideas again. You lay in bed and try to mix tracks on your laptop, but your heart just isn’t in it. You don’t come up with much of anything though. You mostly just lay there and listen to something you’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

In that space of time a bit too late to be called afternoon but too early to be evening, you hear the doorbell. You don’t think anything about it until a knock on your door comes a few minutes later.

You shout an answer, unwilling to get up. John opens the door, followed by Jade and Rose. That makes you sit up. You weren’t expecting them.

“Sup, guys?” you ask. You remember that you skipped showering last night and you’re still in your pajama pants.

Jade is the first one to speak. “We haven’t seen you all week, so we wanted to surprise you! And check up on you and stuff.”

You start to feel guilty for worrying your friends again. What’s worse, you feel exposed without a pair of shades, because you know your eyes are the weak link in your poker face.

“We’ve also got this,” Rose says, holding out a black bag to you.

You don’t know if she thinks she’s being subtle or what, but you take the bag anyway. As you pull out the contents of the bag, you hear John proudly say they all pitched in for it.

In your hands you have a brand new pair of shades, as you expected. But you didn’t expect to like them so much. They have plastic rims with this atrocious red and black zebra pattern. You can’t help the smile slipping on your face as you try them on. They’re not as dark as your others, but holy shit do you love them.

“So you all chipped in for a six dollar pair of shades?” you ask, your smile twisting into a smirk.

“Well,” starts Rose, and you turn back to her. “We had an idea. We thought – “

“You thought,” John interrupts.

“We thought” she repeats pointedly (and you assume she means herself and Jade), “that part of the reason your glasses were so special to you was that they were a gift from John. Your first pair of glasses were from your brother too, so.” She trails off awkwardly.

“And we couldn’t decide who should pay,” Jade finishes. She seems hopeful, yet unsure if you like them or not.

You really want to show them how much you love their gift and how much you love them for it, but you’re kind of choked up. You guess you never realized how sentimental you were. You settle for pulling them all into a group hug and letting yourself smile freely.


End file.
